Puddle plan emerges for Evergreen

A proposed project to resurface and improve stormwater drainage along two miles of U.S. 2 through Evergreen is out for public comment, the Montana Department of Transportation said Monday.

“It’s needed pretty widely,” Zach Peterson, a floor supervisor at the McDonald’s restaurant in Evergreen, said about the proposed work.

The puddle-prone project area runs from the railroad track underpass on Kalispell’s east side to the junction with Montana 35 and then north to the intersection with Cottonwood Drive.

Peterson said deep puddles that form in front of the restaurant have caused people to pull up to the drive-through with everything from squealing belts to bogged-down engines. The puddles even damaged a gasket on his own car once.

“We’ve had a lot of people come through the drive-through saying they almost got stuck. ... It’d be greatly appreciated. It’d help a lot,” Peterson said.

Proposed work would upgrade existing storm drain inlets between the railroad underpass and the Stillwater River Bridge and install a storm drain trunk line under the road’s median from the bridge to Cottonwood Drive, with storm-drain inlets at the curb.

The full width of the roadway would be milled and resurfaced from Montana 35 to Cottonwood Drive.

In a press statement, the Montana Department of Transportation said the proposed work is tentatively scheduled for construction in 2014, but that depends on completion of all project development activities and availability of funding.

The need for the proposed work was echoed by Laura Nadeau, a cashier at the Brian’s 76 gas station in Evergreen.

Flood waters can get under the station’s gasoline pumps and wreak havoc with a leak detection sensor for the tanks, she said. “It’s shut down our whole pump system before.”

Nadeau agreed it’s about time for the project. She only wished the work could have been done two years sooner.

For now, public comments can be submitted to the Montana Department of Transportation at P.O. Box 7039, Missoula, MT 59807-7039 or online at www.mdt.mt.gov/mdt/comment_form.shtml. Note that comments are for project CN 5074.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.